Aquatic Environments
The aquatic terrain rules apply to adventures on the high seas and encounters on or near streams, rivers, and ponds. Any character can wade in relatively calm water that isn’t over his or her head, with no check required. Similarly, swimming in calm water only requires Athletics skill checks with a Difficulty Class of 10. Trained swimmers can just take 10. Underwater Combat Land-based creatures can have considerable difficulty when fighting in water. Water affects a creature's defense, attack rolls, damage, and movement. In some cases, a creature's opponents may get a bonus on attacks. These modifiers apply whenever a character is swimming, walking in chest-deep water, or walking along the bottom of a body of water. * Ranged Attacks Underwater: Thrown weapons prove ineffective underwater, even when launched from land. Attacks with other ranges are made against characters engaged in melee with them as if the target had light cover. Other ranged attacks made against character in deep water (10+ feet), or elsewhere in the same zone of the same zone as the attacker, are made as if the swimmer had heavy cover. * Attacks From Land: Characters swimming, floating, treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep have heavy cover, imposing 2 penalties on attack rolls from opponents on land. FX are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other attacks) and fire FX. * Fire: Natural fire does not burn underwater. FX with the fire descriptor are ineffective underwater unless the character makes a successful Focus check (DC 20). If the check succeeds, the FX creates a bubble of steam instead of its usual fiery effect, but otherwise the FX works as described. The surface of a body of water blocks line of effect for any fire FX. If the character has made an FX check to render the fire FX usable underwater, the surface still blocks line of effect. Flowing Water Large, placid rivers move at only a few miles per hour, so they function as still water for most purposes. But some rivers and streams are swifter; anything floating in them moves downstream at a rate of 1 to 2 zones per round. The fastest rapids can send swimmers bobbing downstream with a Move Object FX. Fast rivers are always at least rough water (Athletics, DC 15), and whitewater rapids are stormy water (Athletics, DC 20). If a character is in moving water, move the character downstream the indicated distance at the end of her turn (Initiative count 1). A character trying to maintain his or her position relative to the riverbank can spend some or all of her turn swimming upstream. Move Object 5 (Flaws: Athletics check opposes) (5 ep) Characters swept away by a fast-moving river must make Athletics checks (DC 20) every round to avoid going under. If a character gets a check result of 5 or more over the minimum result necessary, he stops his motion by catching a rock, tree limb, or bottom snag, and he's no longer being carried along by the flow of the water. Escaping the rapids by reaching the bank requires three Athletics checks (DC 20) in a row. Characters arrested by a rock, limb, or snag can't escape under their own power unless they strike out into the water and attempt to swim their way clear. Other characters can rescue them as if they were trapped in quicksand. Nonflowing Water Lakes and oceans simply require a swim speed or successful Athletics checks to move through them (DC 10 in calm water, DC 15 in rough water, and DC 20 in stormy water). Characters need a way to breathe if they're underwater or they risk drowning. When underwater, characters can move in any direction as if they were flying with perfect maneuverability. Drain 1 (Physical Ability Scores; Extras: No Resistance) (4 ep) It is possible to drown in substances other than water, such as sand, quicksand, fine dust, and silos full of grain. Category:Rulebook Category:Action Category:Environment